Toddler killed, teens accused, community grieves

Sherry West had just been to the post office a few blocks from her apartment in Brunswick's historic South End neighborhood Thursday morning and was pushing her son, Antonio, in his stroller.

Antonio Santiago

The slaying happened around the corner from West's apartment in the city's Old Town historic district. It's a street lined with Victorian homes from the late 1800s -- some restored by their owners, others divided into rental units like the apartment West shared with her son.

"He asked me for money and I said I didn't have it," Wests said Friday morning from her apartment, which was scattered with her son's toys and movies.

Beverly Anderson, whose husband owns the property where West has lived for several years, said she was stunned by the violence in what's generally known as a safe neighborhood where children walk to school and families are frequently outdoors.

After the Thursday-morning shooting, law enforcement officers from a dozen local and state agencies flooded the neighborhood focused on catching what the mother described as two young black men.

By Friday evening, tributes left the boy left at the corner of London Street where he was shot had become a spontaneous memorial.

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